Evidence map›Paper›PMID 26257632›Full record

ReviewFrontiers in human neuroscience2015

A systematic review of non-motor rTMS induced motor cortex plasticity.

Grégory Nordmann, Valeriya Azorina, Berthold Langguth, Martin Schecklmann

Open access · goldAbstract readReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in Frontiers in human neuroscience, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
20citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
1.3field-weighted citation impact, top 20% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

20 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 30 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Cerebello-Motor Paired Associative Stimulation and Motor Recovery in Stroke: a Randomized, Sham-Controlled, Double-Blind Pilot Trial.Neurotherapeutics : the journal of the American Society for Experimental NeuroTherapeutics · 2022
    Trial
  3. Theta burst stimulation for the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder: a pilot study.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2019
    Trial
  4. Article
  5. Effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation on motor ability, neurophysiological changes, mental health, and activities of daily living in spinal cord injury: a systematic review and meta-analysis.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2026
    Article
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  20. Evidence and evidence gaps in tinnitus therapy.GMS current topics in otorhinolaryngology, head and neck surgery · 2016
    Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Grégory NordmannExperimental and Clinical Neuroscience, University of Regensburg Regensburg, Germany ; Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Regensburg Regensburg, Germany.
Valeriya AzorinaExperimental and Clinical Neuroscience, University of Regensburg Regensburg, Germany ; Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Regensburg Regensburg, Germany.
Berthold LangguthDepartment of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Regensburg Regensburg, Germany.
Martin SchecklmannDepartment of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Regensburg Regensburg, Germany.
University of Regensburg · DE

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Motor cortex excitability can be measured by single- and paired-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) can induce neuroplastic effects in stimulated and in functionally connected cortical regions. Due to its ability to non-invasively modulate cortical activity, rTMS has been investigated for the treatment of various neurological and psychiatric disorders. However, such studies revealed a high variability of both clinical and neuronal effects induced by rTMS. In order to better elucidate this meta-plasticity, rTMS-induced changes in motor cortex excitability have been monitored in various studies in a pre-post stimulation design. Here, we give a literature review of studies investigating motor cortex excitability changes as a neuronal marker for rTMS effects over non-motor cortical areas. A systematic literature review in April 2014 resulted in 29 articles in which motor cortex excitability was assessed before and after rTMS over non-motor areas. The majority of the studies focused on the stimulation of one of three separate cortical areas: the prefrontal area (17 studies), the cerebellum (8 studies), or the temporal cortex (3 studies). One study assessed the effects of multi-site rTMS. Most studies investigated healthy controls but some also stimulated patients with neuropsychiatric conditions (e.g., affective disorders, tinnitus). Methods and findings of the identified studies were highly variable showing no clear systematic pattern of interaction of non-motor rTMS with measures of motor cortex excitability. Based on the available literature, the measurement of motor cortex excitability changes before and after non-motor rTMS has only limited value in the investigation of rTMS related meta-plasticity as a neuronal state or as a trait marker for neuropsychiatric diseases. Our results do not suggest that there are systematic alterations of cortical excitability changes during rTMS treatment, which calls into question the practice of re-adjusting the stimulation intensity according to the motor threshold over the course of the treatment.

Indexed as

cross-modalexcitabilitymotor cortexplasticityTMStranscranial magnetic stimulation

Identifiers

PMID26257632
PMCPMC4508515
OpenAlexW1492654920

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.